COVID 19: Adamawa relaxes lockdown, gives guidelines

The Governor of Adamawa State Alhaji Ahmadu Fintri has relaxed the lockdown in the state which commenced at midnight on Saturday 25th April 2020 as a result of the COVID 19 case.

According to a broadcast to the state on Sunday May 3, the governor said the state has four confirmed cases now and currently on the trail of another positive case who is on the run.

Howbeit schools both public and private remain closed and he encouraged parents to take advantage of the virtual classes on radio and television to keep their wards abreast.

Governor Fintri said the state has made tremendous progress in the last one week as contact tracing and sample collection have been efficiently and effectively done.

“Despite being among the lowest in the Federation, this number is alarming considering that the new cases are completely unrelated to the index case.” He said.

Continuing the governor said “as a responsible Commander who knows the danger which this trend poses in terms of community transmission, I have ordered an aggressive contact tracing, testing, immediate isolation where necessary and treatment of all patients who ultimately, test positive”

He commended the people for their resiliweek, State COVID 19 Containment Committee as well as the courageous health personnel in the surveillance and case management teams and the EOC, in general while not leaving out the security agencies and the traditional rulers.

The Governor said in view of the disruption to lives and livelihoods and considering that majority of the people have to go out daily to eke out a living, Government, after due consultations, has agreed to ease the lockdown in line with some of the measures taken by the Federal Government, particularly those that are in consonance with our peculiar situation in Adamawa State.”

From “Monday 4th May 2020, there will be a relaxation of the restriction on movements between 6am to 8pm onwards, subject to any further review. In this regard, Government believes that strict adherence to the protocols and guidelines issued by the World Health Organization and adopted by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) coupled with aggressive contact tracing will greatly enhance the containment plan.”

He reeled out the following measures:

1) Frequent and proper handwashing with soap and running water, where possible, alcohol based hand sanitizers should be used;

2) Mandatory wearing of face masks when one goes out and in all gatherings, markets, shops, commercial transport;

3) Adherence to social and physical distancing

4) Avoiding crowds of above fifty people in social, cultural and religious gatherings.

The above will greatly help curtail the spread of the virus in our communities.

Civil Servants from level 15 and above should report back to Work from 8am to 2pm while for others, the Head of Service will draw up a convenient timetable which workers shall adhere to.

Temperature checks and hand sanitizing protocols shall be strictly adhered to at entry and access points to all offices, just as wearing of face masks is mandatory to gain entrance into public places.

Banks will continue offering skeletal services while ensuring customers adhere to all measures stipulated above.

“For the avoidance of doubt, inter-states boarders remain closed and all citizens shall observe the 8:00pm to 6:00am curfew imposed by President Muhammadu Buhari,” he said.

Tricycles are limited to conveying three (3) people including the rider while the maximum allowed for Taxis, cabs and private vehicles is four(4) including the driver. Buses are also to reduce their passengers to half capacity.

Mobile Courts are still very much around to enforce any reprimand prescribed by the Law and the law enforcement agencies are enjoined to use the appropriate means to enforce the law, he said

The Governor enjoined community and Religious Leaders to be at the forefront of safeguarding the Society by ensuring that newcomers into our communities are identified and made to self-isolate for 14 days and when they show signs and symptoms, the relevant health workers or the COVID 19 Situation Room should be contacted through the available numbers, already in circulation.

While addressing the rumour on some returnees from Gombe on Friday, May 1, 2020, he said “Gombe State government returned some of our citizens who were on transit through the State and have been quarantined. This was done after they had sent us a list of the returnees. While there, samples were collected, at random, and sent to the lab for testing. Twenty-six (26) out of the total returned were among those sampled, tested and found negative and were released along with those who showed no symptoms after the 14 days.”

Continuing he said “on Saturday 02/05/2020, the Epidemiological Unit Head in Gombe reported to our team here that two people whose samples were collected and confirmed positive had slipped out before there results was received and they are suspected to be heading to Adamawa, there intended destination.”

But the details of the individuals did not match anyone on the list we had from Gombe.

Of the two, one indicated Mubi as his final destination and the other Lamurde. Search teams were raised to track them down and we were lucky to track the Lamurde bound person in Numan at about 1:30am last night and have picked him up early this morning and is now at the treatment centre”

According to him the Mubi bound, person has been tracked to Ngorure, through his phone number but is still at large and his phone has been out of communication for a while.

“We are using all available means to get him. I can therefore confirm that we now have, as at today, 5 positive cases of COVID 19 in our treatment centre.”He said

The Governor said “Coronavirus is fatal but defeatable. You are therefore advised to take all the preventive measures necessary to avoid contracting it. it is our personal and collective responsibility to fight the pandemic and no force can stop a people’s sheer determination to confront and overcome any adversity and together we shall defeat Coronavirus and banish it from Adamawa.”